On Friday 10 February 2006 15:40, Nick Rout wrote: > Back On topic, what is an application that has a real WOW factor on a > demo day? I am not sure that it is enough to say "Look at linux, it will > do the same things as your windows machine" - people want a reason to go > through the (greater or lesser) degree of pain involved in switching. Frequently a very beguiling reason is $0.
I remember some years ago I prepared a set of policy papers for a small primary school using the LyX / LaTeX / TeX tool chain. I was waylaid by female parent who had a small office cum typesetting business. Upon her seeing the printouts, the conversation continued in this vein:- She: "OOh! that's nice work, what software did you use"? Me: "The LyX front-end to LaTeX and TeX". She: "Never heard of it, where did you get it? How much does it cost"? Me: "It's a free download off the Internet, but you have to know how to set it up". She - with emotion: "I've just spent $12,000 on a supposedly top notch typesetting system, and it doesn't produce anything as nice as that. Me: "I'm so sorry." She - now in fairly full flow emotionally: "These conputer companies are just rip off artists. I've just been conned out of twelve grand"! Or words to that effect. -- CS
